Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

ON An NGO in Uganda has teamed up with mobile phone companies to create a database for refugees to register their personal details. Nokia

Nokia capitalized on the growing popularity of social networking in South Africa to launch MoMath, a mathematics teaching tool that targets users of the instant messaging platform Mxit. Mxit is South Africa's most popular social media platform, with more than 10 million active users in the country, the company says. The potential for transforming the continent's dysfunctional educational system is immense, as mobile phones -- cheaper to own and easier to run than PCs -- gain ground as tools for delivering teaching content. It is hoped that mediating education through social networking will help reduce the significant numbers of school-age African children who are not receiving any formal education.

More than half of the 728 parents surveyed thought social media made their children more open-minded.

Of the parents surveyed, 71 percent believe that 13 is the right age to let their children use Facebook. Christophersen said that’s usually the right choice.

Lynch ruled out Facebook for her children until they hit high school. Internet browsing is restricted to G-rated sites and cut off altogether after 9 p.m. and on Sundays. Cell phones cannot charge overnight in the bedroom. That keeps her children from texting in the middle of the night. “I feel like I’m alone,” she said. “There aren’t many people that have a plan like this in place.”

Using their cell phones and the Internet to self-assess instead of engaging in traditional face-to-face conversation with their instructors alleviates students' anxiety and increases their comfort level with the language, helping them learn faster.

Students, meanwhile, should return to their avatars to view instructor comments and replay their recordings; this will help them identify areas in which they are having difficulty so they can work to improve those skills.